NewStem Ltd., a Jerusalem-based biotech startup with a precision-medicine technology that it says can increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy, said Monday it has raised $4 million in seed financing from a US-based company.

The US firm is Hollywood Media Corp., a shell company whose shares are traded over the counter. On Monday, Hollywood Media, which previously operated in ad sales, said that it is undergoing a strategic transformation via its investment in NewStem, and refocusing on NewStem’s diagnostic technology. The US company is replacing its officers and directors, and intends to change its name to NovelStem International Corp.

Researchers in Israel, Canada, and Germany have found that animals with larger pancreatic cells tend to age faster, while those with smaller such cells seem to live longer.

They came to this “shockingly beautiful and unexpected” correlation, said Yuval Dor, who studies developmental biology at The Hebrew University’s Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, after studying the pancreases of 24 mammalian species, from the smallest, a shrew, to the tallest, a giraffe. T

The findings were published on Monday in the journal Developmental Cell.

Previously, scientists had thought that after birth, most mammals’ organs, including the pancreas, grow by cell ...

A woman’s body learns from difficulties in a first pregnancy and adapts to try to avert such difficulties in subsequent pregnancies, Israeli researchers said.

The researchers, at Hadassah Medical Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, say their six-year study on the role of certain cells during a women’s pregnancy period may pave the way to develop new drugs to decrease complications in childbirth.

Their research on the “trained memory” of the “natural killer” cells that fight viruses and tumors, they said, found that the cells in charge of helping fetuses implant in the womb and avoid diseases ...

The UK magazine Times Higher Education, which publishes an annual ranking of global universities, has placed Hebrew University of Jerusalem among the top 100 most powerful global university brands. This marks the first time since 2014 that an Israeli university has been included in this list, the university said in a statement. The World Reputation Rankings 2018 surveyed more than 10,000 leading academics from 137 countries, the statement said. They were asked to name 15 universities that are the best for research and teaching, based on their own experience. Hebrew University is the only Israeli university listed in this ...

Why would Crusaders decorate a staircase with the carving of a menorah? This archaeological mystery — almost two millennia in the making — was recently solved, seven years after the Jewish symbol was discovered in a Hebrew University excavation of ancient Tiberias. The massive menorah, originally carved on a basalt tomb door, is tangible evidence of the city’s dramatic historical periods in the past centuries, under the world’s three major monotheistic religions.

The 68×78-centimeter (27×31 inch) seven-stemmed menorah was uncovered in a dig led by the Hebrew University’s Dr. Katya Tzitrin Silverman, which has been ongoing since ...

As Israel faces a shortage of some 10,000 engineers and programmers in the coming decade, three Jerusalem-area students in the tech field noticed an even bigger scarcity in their classrooms and workplaces: women. “We’re frustrated that not enough girls are involved in the computer science field,” said Noga Mann, a Hebrew University student and a co-founder of QueenB. Yasmin Dunsky and Neta Moses, and later, Mann, wanted to address the gender disparity as early as possible. They created QueenB, a mentorship and training program for girls of middle-school age, to support their interest in computer science and instill ...

Yaron Danieli, the Hebrew University’s newest pick to spearhead the commercialization of technologies developed within its ivory towers, is taking the reins at a delicate time. Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Israeli academia has come under public scrutiny for missing out on royalties on technologies developed by their researchers: earlier this month, the Israeli press reported that Amnon Shashua, the chief executive officer of Mobileye, which was sold to Intel Corp. for a whopping $15 billion, convinced Hebrew University officials to forgo any monetary claims to ...